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  Priest 'Was Drunk' Night Body Found

Glasgow Evening Times [Scotland]
April 10, 2007

http://www.eveningtimes.co.uk/news/display.var.1318122.0.priest_was_drunk_night_body_found.php

A Parish priest was drunk and upset the night the body of Polish student Angelika Kluk was found in his church, a murder trial heard.

But parishioner Rita Bonner, 65, of Knightswood, Glasgow, denied to the court that Father Gerry Nugent was scared.

The 63-year-old priest, who earlier told the trial that he had sex with Angelika in the summer of 2005 when she was only 22, had been ordered by police to leave his home in the chapel house at St Patrick's, Anderston, Glasgow.

They had been searching for Angelika since she was reported missing four days earlier.

Handyman Peter Tobin, 60, denies raping and murdering Angelika and concealing her body under the church floor.

Pensioner Miss Bonner said Father Gerry came to her house in Carlibar Avenue, where she lives with her younger sister, Margaret, 60, after the grim discovery.

Donald Findlay QC, defending Tobin, asked her: "How drunk was Father Nugent?"

Rita Bonner told the lawyer: "He had a good drink in him, yes."

She said he didn't look drunk when he arrived but was drinking as they sat discussing the day's events and what the "something" the police had found might be.

A Russian student, Rebecca Dordi, who had also been living in the chapel house, was being questioned by police.

She arrived at the Bonner house about 11.30pm to tell how she had been in the church when she saw a detective peering down a hatch in the floor, then calling colleagues to the spot. She was told to leave the church.

Mr Findlay asked: "Was Father Nugent conscious?" Rita Bonner replied: "Not really, he was drunk. He was in a terrible state, very upset."

"Or scared?" asked Mr Findlay. "I didn't think he was scared" she told him.

On the day the body was found the sisters had cleaned the church. They said they were unaware the hatch was there.

Earlier, as revealed in later editions of yesterday's Evening Times, parishioner Marie Devine told the court the last time she saw Angelika she was with Peter Tobin.

She said on Sunday, September 24, they were having a cup of tea or coffee. When she returned to the church in the early evening Tobin was alone in the kitchen.

In a "special defence" read to the jury Tobin admits having sex with the student, with her consent. The trial continues.

 
 

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